Troubling Tales (d20)
A fourth d20 character-creation table, companion to Terrible Traits, Broken Bodies, and Bad Habits. The whole group can share a single backstory; smaller groups within the party can share a tale; or the GM can use one entry to give a mundane NPC sudden history.
These are tales that travel with the character. None of them resolve. All of them follow.
The Tales (d20)
| d20 | Tale |
|---|---|
| 1 | Pursued for manslaughter. There is a bounty. |
| 2 | In massive debt. The debt is being traded to successively more ruthless groups. |
| 3 | Carries a rare, sought-after item. |
| 4 | A cursed wound that never heals. |
| 5 | Had an illegal, immoral, secret affair with a member of the royal family. Has proof. |
| 6 | Escaped cult member. Terrified, paranoid. Other cultists are everywhere. |
| 7 | An identity thief — recently killed and replaced the person they appear to be. |
| 8 | Banished and disowned for unspecified deeds. Can never go home. |
| 9 | Deserted the military after witnessing a massacre. Bounty on head. Hunted by former friends. |
| 10 | Very recently murdered a close relative. Very recently. |
| 11 | A puzzle cube has been calibrated incorrectly (or has it?), awakening a slumbering abomination. |
| 12 | Evil creatures love the scent of your spoor and are drawn to it, dragging disaster in your wake. |
| 13 | A battle wound left a shard of metal slowly inching closer to your heart. Every day there is a 2% chance it reaches it. |
| 14 | Violence forced you into the wilderness. You think waving trees are whispering. You talk to, scream at, attack trees. |
| 15 | Cursed to share the nightmares of others. You sleep far, far away. |
| 16 | At permanent war with all corvids. No contact without violence. You carry a sling. |
| 17 | After dreaming of an underground temple to a forgotten god, you understand the songs of insects and worms. |
| 18 | Tracked and observed by a golem, after an agreement which you know has been wiped from your mind. |
| 19 | "Burn or be burned" is the fate you accept. |
| 20 | Your flesh heals twice as fast, but your companions' twice as slow. You see a many-eyed "guardian angel." |
Terrible Traits (companion tables: Broken Bodies, Bad Habits). Tale 11's puzzle cube echoes Cube-Violet; tale 17's underground temple gestures toward Sepulchre of the Swamp Witch or the toad-cities beneath Grift; tale 18's golem-pact may connect to Tergol's experiments; tale 20's many-eyed guardian is a [CANON CHECK] hook open to whichever divine horror the GM prefers.
Each entry is a one-line proper-noun engine — the bounty, the debt-traders, the puzzle cube, the corvid war, the unnamed golem, the many-eyed angel. Every one of them can carry a session.